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Hanoi
Your articles on Vietnam today were superb
(November 1989). It is indeed time for the
United States to take the lead in a new era of
relations. Those of us who served there seem
more willing than the government that sent us
there. Where are the American statesmen who
can see beyond containment and Cold War, and
the national tragedy of U. S. involvement?
DON MARKHAM
Rolling Hills Estates, California
I spent several months in 1989 in Vietnam as part
of a United Nations effort to help rehabilitate
forests severely degraded by 30 years of war,
chemical defoliation, poor government policies,
and rural poverty. I was prepared to be treated
coolly. On the contrary I was uniformly received
with genuine friendliness. Everywhere, the mes
sage was "We want to be friends with America,"
and hopes were high that the Vietnamese pullout
from Cambodia would open the door to normal
ized relations with the West.
RICHARD PARDO
Alexandria, Virginia
Two historical points were not adequately ex
plained. The murder of Diem was presented as a
coup. Our leaders, notably Ambassador Lodge
and President Kennedy, have been accused of
connivance in the coup. If true, that act more
than any others made the Vietnamese war our
war. The other point, the final defeat of South
Vietnam was given as an example of General
Giap's military prowess. His flagrant violation
of the Paris peace accord certainly made the con
quest easier, as did the decision of our Congress
to withhold military supplies.
JOHN R. LOEFFLER
Elbridge, New York
Peter White journeyed to Vietnam to "seek an
swers to a big question. How is it that these . .
people .. . have for 14 years now failed to bring
to their vast majority even a halfway decent stan
dard of living?" The answer in a word - commu
nism. I was in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, when
the phrase "boat people" was unknown. No one
then fled the war as they now flee the peace.
JOHN JAEGER
Irvine, California
To me, a former South Vietnamese citizen, it is
clear why the economy is getting worse: failing
communism and aging, stubborn, incapable
leaders. For instance, a four-star general whose
education was never more than outdated war
techniques is in charge of the education, technol
ogy, and science programs. Let's not blame the
poor Vietnamese. Communism never works, not
in China, not in Russia, and especially not
in Vietnam.
TRUNG T. NGUYEN
Coraopolis,Pennsylvania
Please do not show dogs or cats, puppies or kit
tens lying in baskets ready to be slaughtered for
someone's meal. Eat they must, but why domes
ticated animals? They are the extended family of
the human race, to be loved and cared for.
ANNA HALL
Vernon, New Jersey
U. S. Presidents hunt and eat birds. In Europe
some people eat horses. In Vietnam they eat
dogs. Are we of North American culture better
than others because we do not eat dogs? We must
not criticize the diet of other cultures if ours is
just as strange in their view. I was pleased to read
the objective explanation of the photograph on
page 591, unlike some descriptions that portray
Asians' consumption of dog as barbaric.
ANTHONY MENDES
Toronto, Ontario
Hue, My City, Myself
Tran Van Dinh says some of his father's prophe
cies for him have come true, but "I have never
become a famous literary figure." I would like to
dissuade Mr. Dinh of that notion. His articulate
article will be read by millions in what is perhaps
the most uniformly respected publication in the
world. That, Mr. Dinh, is fame enough.
FRANK Ross
Livonia, Michigan
The Hue massacre was much more than "brutal
actions by individual soldiers."
Numerous
sources, including Douglas Pike of the Univer
sity of California, have documented that some
5,800 civilians were executed or abducted by
communist forces during the battle of Hue. Some
2,800 bodies were recovered in mass graves.
Those atrocities were not "actions by individual
soldiers." Guenter Lewy (America in Vietnam)
wrote: "Local communist cadres, following pre
pared blacklists, rounded up key civil servants,
officers, educators and religious figures-the
leaders of the community-and executed them
after trials before drumhead courts." The Hue
massacre was, without a doubt, organized from
Hanoi.
HARRY W. HAYES, Editor
Southeast Asian and Afghanistan
Review, Geneva, Switzerland
NationalGeographic, March 1990